SEELEY ON SPORTS: Countless memories and thank yous upon stepping down as editor

Mercury sports editor Don Seeley, fifth from left, was honored by the wrestling coaches of the Pioneer Athletic Conference at this year’s PAC-10 Wrestling Championships in January. Seeley, who will be inducted into the Pennsylvania chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in April, is retiring as a fulltime employee after 32 1/2 years at The Mercury but will continue as a contributor.

The memory bank has gone bankrupt on more than a few occasions when attempting to recall the exact dates of some meaningful moments in a writing career that has spanned five decades, nearly three generations, and an estimated 6,000-plus stories.

Of course there’s no problem remembering how I got into the business – a big thank you to the late Jack Jeffers, the sports editor at the former Daily Republican in Phoenixville who talked me into covering a high school football game four months after I got out of college with a business degree in 1970. There’s no problem remembering who truly whet my appetite to keep writing – a big thank you to Walt Kalil, who gave me the opportunity to write what I could when I could as a correspondent for the former Weekly Advertiser (and paid me a whopping five or so dollars a story) throughout the 70s. There’s no problem remembering who offered me half the money I was making to take my first full-time job in the newspaper business – a big thank you to Rich Roesler and Gene Dinnocenti, who bit hook, line and sinker on my babbling interview and hired me as the editor of The Reporter in 1980 (and introduced me to former editor Shirley Elliott, the queen who guided me through the transition).

Naturally I have no problem remembering Dave Kurtz and Bob Urban, who brought me on board at The Mercury a year later; no problem remembering Tom McNichol (the next of so many sports editors before it was my turn), who allowed me to write just about anything and everything I wanted to. And even though she’s been with me the longest of anyone in this business, I’ll never ever have a problem embracing any of my memories of Nancy March, who twisted both of my arms and threatened me additional body harm if I didn’t accept the sports editor job in the late-90s. Most important, she was in my corner every day of the week after that informal interview, through all the policy debates, heated arguments, and Union vs. Management issues, and especially throughout my near year-long battle with cancer in 2005.

And there is absolutely no way I’ll forget the countless writers, photographers and editors – as well as clerks, salespersons and mail-roomers – who passed through The Mercury … some of whom I absolutely admired and truly respected, most of whom I genuinely liked, and all of whom helped make what I felt was a good place to work and an even greater place to hang out.

Advertisement

*

Memories still…

I will never forget when all those folks up in Boyertown came together to build Bear Stadium (at little or no cost to the taxpayers) in 1982. The late Don Specht was the mouth that roared behind the project and the man who took care of the red tape, while Ken Ellis and the late Claude Garber took care of every nail, screw, board, brick, piece of steel, fence and blade of grass in the construction of it (along with their army of volunteers). I won’t forget the faces on all the Boyertown players and their fans down in Hampton, Va., the afternoon they won the Mid-Atlantic Regional to qualify for the World Series – back in their own new stadium. And I won’t forget an actual teary-eyed “Bud” Garber’s three simple words moments after the Bears defeated Lafayette, Calif., for the World Series title … “We did it.” That they did, and it was a story of a small town’s triumph over long odds – a story about a Field of Dreams long before Hollywood coined the phrase with a movie – and a story told in major publications around the country.

Come to think of it, the memories of traveling with and reporting on Boyertown baseball alone would fill a book, although many of the Bud-and-Boys (that’s Bud, Linny, Skinny and Horney) and the Bears (as well as my own) exploits in such engaging cities as Fargo (N.D.), Rapid City (S.D.), Middletown (Ct.), Corvallis (Ore.) and Bartlesville (Okla.) may read more like fiction.

And speaking of baseball, it’ll never be easy to forget that skinny and a bit-awkward first baseman at Phoenixville High School in the mid-80s. Mike Piazza could hit, mind you, and later proved to be the best-hitting catcher in Major League Baseball history. Someday, if the writers vote for those who deserve to be in the Hall of Fame instead of focus on the cheaters, Piazza will be in Cooperstown.

I will never forget the break-up of the Ches-Mont League and the formation of the Pioneer Athletic Conference in 1986. Administrators and coaches alike were criticized – even getting hit with some unkind words in print from me – and tagged as the leaders of the Whimp-Mont League. But the superintendents’ and principals’ perseverance and an unwavering commitment from athletic directors and coaches helped the PAC grow and, more important, earn the respect of others around the district and state.

I will never forget how Perkiomen Valley dominated girls cross country and track in the district and state through the early 80s behind such great individuals like Joanne Kehs and Lisa Thompson. Like Perkiomen Valley’s Mike Connelly – the favorite to win the state title in the 3,200 in 1982 only to get tripped up and spiked soon after the start – come back the following year, sprint to the front immediately after the gun sounded and literally sprint all eight laps to leave everyone else out of breath, win the state title in record time, and leave me with the memory of one of the most outstanding individual performances I’ve ever seen.

I will never forget all the wrestling… like the hip tosses of Spring-Ford’s Tom Ingram; the sound fundamentals and drive of Upper Perkiomen two-time state champion Zack Kemmerer; the excitement of Upper Perkiomen teammate Mark Smith, with his infamous headlock (that produced a career state-record), created every single time he stepped on a mat; the postseason pin barrage of Boyertown state champion Mike Spaid; or the promise of Boyertown’s 14-year-old Jordan Wood, an extraordinarily talented and highly motivated 220-pounder who just last week was second at states.

I will never forget Pottstown’s very rare double in 1993 – winning the boys basketball state title in the winter and the boys track and field state title in the spring.

I will never forget how Pottsgrove’s Ryan Stairs, situated in eighth place and down to the final jump of his high school career – as well as the final jump by anyone in the triple jump of the 1997 PIAA Track and Field Championships, soared nearly two feet farther than he had ever gone before to win the state title in the triple jump. And who, let alone me, will forget just how good and just how dominant Methacton’s Ryann Krais was, winning (at last count) eight individual state titles in track and field.

Other individual memories I’m not soon to forget: How Tom Parlapiano of St. Pius X and Becky Bullard of Perkiomen Valley together outran everyone in PAC-10 cross country for three straight years (1996-98). No one ever did that before or since in the league. Then Bullard went one more, making it a four-peat in 1999. … How J.C. LaDow of Owen J. Roberts won an unprecedented three-straight PAC-10 golf titles (2004-06). … and how Jamie Hassel of Great Valley won four straight PAC-10 doubles titles – with three different partners … How Daniel Boone scorer extraordinaire Wendy Davis went on to become a star and part of the rich tradition of women’s basketball at UConn … How Boyertown and Stanford graduate Nicole Barnhart won two Olympic gold medals as a goalie on the U.S. women’s soccer team.

Other team memories I’m not soon to forget: How head coach Ken Davis’ Pottstown boys basketball teams won eight straight PAC-10 titles (1988-95), and how head coach Maggie deMarteleire’s Lansdale Catholic girls basketball teams won 11 of 15 (between 1991 and 2004); how Boyertown’s girls lacrosse team has won the last nine (and 17 of the last 20 overall) PAC-10 titles; how the Great Valley boys and Owen J. Roberts girls both won nine consecutive PAC-10 soccer championships; How Upper Perkiomen won 10 of 11 girls tennis league titles; and how Upper Perkiomen wrestlers ran off a streak of nine (eight outright) consecutive PAC-10 titles – with six section, three district, four regional, five district team duals and one state duals titles within that stretch.

And how I will forever marvel at coaches like Leo Scoda, who has been coaching boys tennis at Phoenixville for more than 40 years, winning at one time 196 straight PAC-10 matches and 22 consecutive team titles; like Sue Benfield, who just stepped down after 41 years guiding the Boyertown’s softball program, and Cathy Miller, now in her 31st year leading Methacton’s girls softball teams; Dick Ludy, the architect of all of Boyertown baseball’s success through the late-80s; and Lonny Moore, who may have led Phoenixville’s very successful wrestling program through the 70s and early 80s, but also introduced me to wrestling in 1971 and remains today as admired a friend as I may have.

And there just isn’t enough to space to express my thoughts and feelings on other longtime coaches, among them Henry Bernat, Ken Davis, the late Robert McNelly, Jim Mich, Rick Pennypacker and Tom Hontz – who made or are continuing to make such a positive impact on so many student-athletes’ lives.

Unfortunately, I will also remember the loss of way too many good, good people I was blessed to have known and befriend throughout fortysome years of writing… like three-fourths of Bud’s Gang – Bud Garber himself along with Linny Fout and Lloyd “Skinny” Eschbach; Methacton wrestling coach Nelson Stratten; St. Pius X athlete and coach (and the man with a giant heart) Ron Reed; former Hill School athletic director (and walking history book) Dave Mercer; Upper Perkiomen football player and always smiling Kyheim Tripp; Pottstown graduate and longtime NBA official (who never forgot where he was from) Earl “Yogi” Strom; Owen J. Roberts football coach (and the little fella who roared) Joe Edwards; Royersford High graduate and statistician/historian Ron Nettles; Pottstown announcer and Trojan historian Elmer “Chump” Pollock; Pottstown football and wrestling standout, Navy SEAL and real American hero Job Price; Pottstown coach and longtime family friend Bill Rogers; and so many more.

Perhaps as difficult to forget as anyone will be Jean Wherley, my high school English teacher. She knew from the very beginning of my desire to write. She reminded me to not always follow guidance counselors’ suggestions, but to follow my heart and my dreams. And until her death, she was – without question – my biggest supporter (as well as my ghost editor).

Fact is, if I sat down for a week (instead of a few hours) and thought about all the people I want to acknowledge, this column could easily turn into a War and Peace sequel.

But I’ll always remember that from the moment I first sat down in front of my own electronic typewriter to write that very first story – a Spring-Ford at Governor Mifflin football game – being a sportswriter or sports editor never was quite a job to me. It quickly became a passion, writing about and getting to know all the student-athletes and their families and fans.

Funny, I always dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player. Thank goodness I didn’t, because except for all those years of not being with my two daughters (Brenda and Alison) as much as I would’ve liked, and recently not being around my grandson (Dane) as much as I would like, being a sportswriter has actually been a dream come true.

So, to all of you who took the time to help me along the way, who read my stories (and will hopefully continue to read them in the future), and took time to talk to me, there are just two words that come to mind … and they come through the heart.